and lower than the top-two rated bowls before New Year's Eve (Holiday and Belk; Music City was tied with Texas, despite having a worse time slot than all of those bowls).

I'm afraid ESPN will compare this year's Cotton/Orange/Fiesta/Peach ratings to those last year for the pre-championship BCS games -- all of which were higher -- and revert to the BCS scheduling of bowls in mid-week prime time slots after New Year's Day.